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DENVER — Their thunder will shake the rafters of the Pepsi Center. "Hill-a-ry! Hill-a-ry! Hill-a-ry!" It will take minutes before she will be able to speak. But she'll let them go on. There is so much pride, so much sadness. And yes, anger. They'll need to vent.
In a convention with almost as many elected Clinton delegates as Obama delegates, Hillary Clinton tonight will deliver a speech that, every bit as much as Barack Obama's own, must help heal the Democratic Party's wounds, if the party is to leave this convention united.
It won't be easy.
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"I feel disenfranchised," said Margaret Haynes, a North Carolina delegate who supported Ms. Clinton. "Her name wasn't even mentioned at our breakfast meeting this morning, and half the people in the room were Clinton delegates.
"... Apparently we've moved past racism in America, but we haven't moved past sexism."
The Republican campaign of John McCain has mischievously run ads suggesting Ms. Clinton was kept off the vice-presidential ticket because her criticisms of Mr. Obama's lack of experience during the primary campaign cut too close.
"I am Hillary Clinton and I do not approve that message," Ms. Clinton told New York delegates yesterday.
But it's not just the GOP. The Obama campaign is furious with a report that surfaced yesterday, on Politico.com, claiming that "mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates" of the two campaigns.
Citing unnamed sources, Politico claimed that Bill Clinton, in particular, was incensed that he was being pressured by the Obama campaign to confine his remarks to foreign policy, when he wanted to deliver a more boisterous personal endorsement.
The report prompted a sharp retort from Mr. Obama's senior strategist, David Axelrod, and top Clinton aide Maggie Williams.
"The fact is that our teams are working closely to ensure a successful convention," they responded. "...Anyone saying anything else doesn't know what they're talking about. Period."
Nonetheless, Mr. Clinton has been largely silent on Mr. Obama's nomination victory. Sources report that while Ms. Clinton has made her own peace with the result of the race, Mr. Clinton is having a harder time reconciling himself to the result.
Many of the people at this convention are having the same problem.
"There is no unity. There never has been unity," Luis Roberto Vera, of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said. Mr. Obama and his supporters, Mr. Vera asserted, have frozen Clinton supporters out of positions of influence in the campaign. And he described Mr. Obama's choice of Joe Biden over Ms. Clinton as vice-president as a "slap in the face."
There are even delegates at this convention who may be voting Republican in November.
"I'm a committed Hillary delegate," said Hilario Garcia, from the Texas delegation. "By rule, as a delegate, I must support the nominee. I'm going to follow the rule."
But he doesn't plan to campaign for the Democrats over the next two months. And will he vote for Barack Obama?
"I'll make that decision when I close the curtain."
The measure of this discontent will be measured tomorrow, when the convention holds a roll call of delegate support.
The Obama and Clinton camps have reportedly reached a deal that will see a few states cast their votes, acknowledging the many states and delegates Ms. Clinton won, at which time she will move to make the vote unanimous.
That doesn't work for Ms. Haynes at all.
"I won't get to cast my vote. My state won't reflect what the vote was. That would be very unfortunate. If you are going to disenfranchise half of the people at the convention, it's going to be very hard to find unity."
There is little sense that the Clinton loyalists, having no support from Ms. Clinton herself, will be successful in organizing resistance at the convention.
Journalists, however, will be listening for boos and catcalls and points-of-order when the vote is finally taken to formally make Mr. Obama the nominee.
Many people at the convention, however, think that febrile journalism is really behind the purported rift between the Clinton and Obama camps.
"The largest portion of it is media spin, and groups that have no association with her campaign," said Carol Peterson, a former Hillary Clinton supporter from North Carolina who now supports the nominee.
"They're groups that are more into making a statement about themselves rather than about the Democratic Party or Senator Clinton," she said.
And tonight?
"We're going to see a rousing speech from her. She can give such a great speech. It's going to bring the convention together and it's going to be a united convention."
If the Democrats are going to fight this election as a united party, they can only hope that Ms. Peterson has the true measure of this gathering.
